Nutrition plays a very big role in a child’s overall health and well-being therefore, knowing yourself, having complete understanding of the growth and development of a child’s neurons,helping your child to develop a good self-esteem, understanding that play is a learning process and guiding your child by creating an environment that allows a child to thrive, by giving them space to be themselves also requires a great understanding of a nutritious diet. Play and learning are intertwined, they are interdependent and require large amount of energy specially mental energy . Therefore to understand the dietary needs of children is very necessary.

In her book “Children’s Houses”, Maria Montessori talks about nutrition as one of our main goals as a parent and how it is of utmost importance to pay attention to a child’s diet. She mentions that the diet must be adapted to the “ physical nature of each child, it should not only be of quantitative proportion but quality matters a great deal. The diet of little children” she says,” must be rich in fats, variety, and right amounts sugar, complex carbohydrates, protein etc. Firstly this is necessary for the reserve matter and secondly for tissue.

It is suggested that for the first few years, the food substances should be minced because the young child has not fully developed the capacity for completely masticating the food. The stomach is not capable for mincing the food matter so soups, purée, etc. should be offered. From 2 to 3 years chiefly milk, eggs,, meat, fruits, and vegetables should be introduced sequentially. The first and foremost task is to understand and read the label carefully. It requires thinking and preparation , as to what how much food child should be offered. It is important to follow the nutritional guidelines and also respect the taste buds because every child’s needs are different.